Tag Archives: endurance

On Tuesday, I was watching the primary election results and noticed that some of the candidates and their spouses seemed very tired. It was a marked difference from the excitement and exuberance I have seen before. They are all going at a fast pace and have a lot of pressure on them. If they want to win, they have to keep going.

What can you do if you are dog-tired but must keep going? First, you can assess whether there is a compelling reason to keep going. Sometimes you get on a treadmill and everything becomes urgent. Your ability to discern is hampered by your fatigue. If you determine you have to keep going, create a strategy for making it through to your endpoint. Such a strategy could include short rest points, getting help from others, increasing the size of your team, adjusting your goals and expectations, if possible or doing things to maintain your health and well-being during this time.

Feeling dog-tired is tough. There is no point in running yourself into the ground. You can find a way to do what you have to and pace yourself to succeed.

As a manager, your work can be a long distance run at short distance speeds. Can you handle both? Sometimes you have to be ready to. Each, though, has differing demands. A short distance manager is ready to go at high speed and efficiency for short distances. A long distance manager needs both endurance and speed.

If your focus is on short distance managing, say for example, managing a customer response team, the key is to be flexible, ready to go at any moment, able to give it your all for short periods of time and able to make good decisions quickly. If your focus is on long distance managing, say in a research program, the key is to be able to get the data you need to go the distance, to have the ability to plan effectively, to motivate your team to keep going and to get the best end result.

Most likely, your work demands a bit of both long and short distance managing. Taking some time to analyze your work in light of these analogies could help you hone your skills and strategies and run a better race.